Chris Adler: Writing New Rules With Lamb of God

By David Weiss

Published in DRUM! Magazine's July 2005 Issue

Replace the bass. Chris Adler of Lamb Of God was hugging a
four-string guitar for a long time before he picked up a pair of
drumsticks, but you’d never know that he’s been playing the skins a mere
ten years by listening to his fast, flexible work on Lamb Of God’s
intriguingly tough CD, Ashes Of The Wake.

Now 32, Adler has more than made up for his late start, surrounded as
he is by a five-man band that is fiercely devoted to pushing the
envelope. “We always raise the bar on everything we do,” he states.
“There’s always a better opportunity tomorrow for us to be better
players and as a band, with that attitude, I don’t think there’s
anything we can’t do. Ten years ago, no one would have thought that we’d
be playing an arena, or be on a two-month U.S. tour of arenas. To have
come to this is already mind-blowing for all of us, and there’s nothing
stopping us from continuing to be the best band that we can be.”

On Ashes, Adler makes a strong case for being one of the best young
metal drummers on the scene. His double-bass kick strokes are extremely
strong and quick, with an uncommon smoothness that makes his patterns
seem to fly even faster. Zero in on his work on songs like “The Faded
Line” [transcribed in #102], “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For,” and
“Laid to Rest,” and you’re in for a major thrill ride.

“There’s so much fun stuff to play in each one of those songs,” he
says. “I’d much rather challenge myself and fail every night than sit
back there bored when we go out and play this stuff for a year. Songs
like the instrumental title track, ’Ashes of the Wake,’ and ’Hourglass’
came together as intense, challenging, and interesting drum parts that
help accentuate what the guitars are doing. I’m not taking away from the
song, but adding something overall other than just the backbeat.

“My ability to balance chops and space comes from the bass playing
that I did. You realize how much more you have to offer when you’re not
doing anything. Keep it simple, not playing a part when you don’t need
it. When putting a song into perspective, how important is it for you to
show off right there, or how important is it to just get by? Those
dynamics in metal are hard to come by, because everyone wants to blow
your head off every time. So give your ear a break, you can pummel it
later. I think it’s really important to find those playing dynamics. You
have to know that you could be doing more, and understand then why it’s
better not to.”

That Little Devil

Before Adler helped found Lamb Of God under its
original eye-opening moniker, Burn The Priest, he was just a kid in
Woodbridge, Virginia with a piano teacher mother. Early on, Adler became
familiar with piano and guitar, dabbled on drums, and entered Virginia
Commonwealth University extremely proficient on the bass, playing on
records and touring.

“My first year of college was 1990, and that’s where I met John
[Campbell] and Mark [Morton], our current bass player and guitar player
in the band. We just became buddies drinking and listening to metal and
everything else. After that year, we parted ways and didn’t see each
other around anymore. I played bass for three more years, and then John
called and said, ’Let’s start a band.’

“I was looking to move away from bass. In high school, I had seen
Wrathchild America with Shannon Larkin, and that was where it started.
Then I got to the call to join the band, but they said, ’Hey, we already
have a bass player.’ I said, ’What the hell, let’s take this on full
time.’ So I picked up the drums.”

While a relatively rare switch, Adler thinks the move from bass to
drums makes a ton of sense. “I think it’s probably the best possible
kind of transfer. The bass players I was into were like John Entwistle
and the guy in Yes [Chris Squire], who knew when not to play. It wasn’t
about showing off all the time. That’s translated to what I like doing
with the drums — I try to keep an angle to keep it interesting, but I
don’t want to overplay for the song. Having that rhythmic background,
trying to lock in with the drummer while I was playing bass,
automatically I was in tune with the rhythmic ideas. I know what’s
possible with those two instruments, and with our bass player we find
those grooves that are under the surface of what our guitar players are
doing.

“I think drums and bass are far more the same than they are
different. The idea is to provide that backbone. In our music it’s
almost a mechanical backbone, and that’s one of the things we try to
breathe a little life into. The guys I mentioned, they had tons of life
in what they were doing, instead of stand-in studio guys just throwing
in on the downbeat. In what we’re playing, the bass player and the
drummer are basically doing the same job. So, again, the transition made
sense in my mind: I understood the way a band worked and what a rhythm
section was responsible for. I would bet that most drummers could pick
up a bass and do fairly well with it.”